teaching a robot to recharge itself is just the first step in a long journey towards autonomy. Eventually robots will need to diagnose damage to their hardware or software, and either repair themselves or travel to a maintenance facility. Full automation will also require robots that are built, installed, perhaps even designed by other machines. All along this path of development, robots will require progressively more complex sensors and reasoning capabilities. Hopefully other robotics engineers will take Marvin’s use of ROS as proof of the benefits that open source software and compatible hardware can have when trying to focus on sensing and programming. Working together robot designers can better equip robots to work by themselves.